Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

LAS VEGAS — Denny Hamlin and crew chief Chris Gayle nailed both their strategy and their car setup the last time the NASCAR Cup Series visited Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

They’re hoping they can find that sweet spot yet again with their No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in Sunday’s race at the 1.5-mile oval (4 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“Just trying to replicate the success, really, right?” Gayle told NASCAR.com on Saturday. “Like, we know what we think made us good last time, and we’re trying to replicate that here. And the temperatures are probably going to be far closer to the fall race. Normally, it’s pretty cool here in the spring, and we didn’t quite get that this time. So, can we build upon that performance or not?”

MORE: Sunday’s starting lineup | At-track photos: Las Vegas

So far, it appears they’re close. After qualifying on pole position in October, Hamlin qualified second in Saturday’s time trials and will start on the front row alongside teammate Christopher Bell.

The ambient temperatures, Gayle believes, will play a factor in how teams balance their race cars for 400 miles around NASCAR’s first intermediate oval of 2026. The spring race produced an uncharacteristic 25th-place finish for the No. 11 team in March 2025, a day when temperatures maxed out at 71 degrees Fahrenheit. On a warmer October afternoon last fall with temps around 77 degrees, Hamlin led nine laps and stormed to the win late.

“It helps specifically, like for us, when we were better in the fall than the spring, and we want to use those fall notes more closely than we did the spring race. That’s really about it,” Gayle said. “And I think you have enough time (and) you get enough spring and fall races, the temperature differences, you can kind of understand the compensation you need to make for it.”

The car that led the most laps last fall, however, was the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driven by Kyle Larson and led by crew chief Cliff Daniels. The team earned Chevrolet’s quickest qualifying time Saturday and will roll off the starting grid fifth. But the team is also navigating updated body panels on Chevrolet’s 2026 Camaro ZL1. With Las Vegas being the first intermediate oval, this provides a true test for Chevrolet’s camp. The group enters Sunday’s exam with just 20 laps of practice and one circuit of qualifying on the track added to their simulation data.

“Twenty minutes isn’t long to adjust on it, but everybody’s in the same boat,” Daniels told NASCAR.com Saturday. “And really grateful for all the people at GM, Chevrolet for bringing us a car that we believe has a lot more potential still to get in it. It’s going to take us a minute to figure out how to balance it out and get it closer. But all signs were looking pretty good today, and now we’ve just got to work on getting the balance a little bit closer for making him comfortable. But I think it’s close.”

Kyle Larson drives during NASCAR Cup Series practice at Las Vegas.
Patrick Vallely | For NASCAR Digital Media

But what strategy will be the right one come Sunday afternoon? In October 2024, Joey Logano stretched his fuel mileage 69 laps to score the victory over Bell, the day’s dominant driver. The answer to Sunday’s equation lies somewhere in the crew chiefs’ notebooks — as long as they select the right formula.

“I mean, we’ve studied a lot of the Vegas, Kansas type intermediate races. They all play out very similar,” Daniels said. “There’s some cautions that you’ve got to look for if they fall at certain spots. Otherwise, the stages play out very similar to one another between those two track types and especially over the years. So all that’s in mind. I don’t expect anything new. Certainly going to be hot and slick, so grip will be a priority. And otherwise, it’s just going to be making good decisions in the moment and execute when we can.”

Pit-stall selection has also proven pertinent in certain years at Las Vegas. Pit road follows a curve along the frontstretch that leaves certain pit stalls advantageous and others detrimental. That includes pit stall No. 1 — the pit box nearest pit exit. Daniels selected stall No. 15 for the third time in the past four Vegas races, while Gayle selected pit stall No. 6 for the No. 11 team. Adam Stevens, crew chief of Bell’s pole-winning car, selected pit stall No. 1, a change from the last time the No. 20 team earned the pole in October 2024 and chose stall No. 6.

MORE: Sunday’s pit map

The debate is fascinating — and arguably never-ending — but how drivers navigate their pit entry and exit may well play a factor in who wins Sunday’s race.

“I think there’s lots of people to complain about how well (that first pit stall) launches, and it does not launch very well,” Gayle said. “And then there’s also the factors of which pit stalls get the best rolling times as well. And obviously, we have enough data. I’ve been in stall one now. I’ve been not stall one with Denny. We can compare and see what the trade-offs are and make the decision based on that.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

LAS VEGAS — No matter the series, Las Vegas Motor Speedway agrees with Kyle Larson.

Surging into the lead from the seventh position moments after the final restart on Lap 154 of 200, Larson pulled away to win The LiUNA!, becoming the fifth different winner in five NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series races this season.

Larson crossed the finish line in Saturday’s race 2.557 seconds ahead of Chase Briscoe, who recovered from a brush with the outside wall and resulting flat tire to finish second.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Las Vegas

The victory was Larson’s second at Las Vegas to go with three in the NASCAR Cup Series. In his first O’Reilly Auto Parts Series start of the 2026 season, the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet driver registered the 18th win of his career.

Sheldon Creed ran third, followed by series leader Justin Allgaier and Sammy Smith.

“I was a bit nervous,” Larson said of the final run. “I knew the 00 (Creed) and Briscoe were ripping the top. I tried it once, and I didn’t feel good up there at all.

“I don’t know — clean air just must have meant a lot today. So, glad I was able to get the lead when it mattered.”

Briscoe took responsibility for the mistake that cost him a chance to win.

“Even with the adversity we were dealing with, I knew if we got a lucky break, we were going to hopefully get back up there,” Briscoe said. “Honestly, it wasn’t an unfortunate break with the tire — I think it was my own fault.

“I just drove it into the fence and cost myself. I had a lot of fun. It was certainly fun slipping and sliding around the race track. You could kind of run all over. I had a blast.”

MORE: Briscoe had ‘fun slipping and sliding around’ in runner-up

Jesse Love ran sixth in one of the fastest cars in the race. Love led 36 laps and was first off pit road after stops on Lap 120. But his team incurred a safety violation when a crew member fell over the wall on that stop, and Love restarted 32nd under penalty. A determined charge through the field earned the sixth-place finish.

Creed’s third-place run was not without incident. On Lap 148, a tap from Creed’s front bumper sent Taylor Gray’s Toyota rocketing into the Turn 3 wall and out of the race as the drivers were battling for second.

“I just got into him,” Creed said. “I was trying to pack some air. I didn’t know he was that close to the 17 (eighth-place finisher Corey Day). I could have cut him more of a break there, and I didn’t. That’s not the way I wanted to race him.”

Connor Zilisch ran seventh as the fourth JRM driver in the top seven. Day in eighth scored his fourth consecutive top 10 after leading nine laps before the Creed/Gray accident caused the eighth and final caution.

William Sawalich finished ninth, and Daytona winner Austin Hill ran 10th.

Allgaier led a race-high 48 laps to Larson’s 47, with the No. 7 JRM driver sweeping the first two stages to expand his series lead over Love to 13 points.

MORE: O’Reilly Auto Parts Series standings | O’Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule

The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series returns to action next Saturday at the historic Darlington Raceway for the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 (5:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Note: Post-race inspection in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series garage concluded without issue, confirming Larson as the Las Vegas winner.

Posted on by Cameron Richardson

LAS VEGAS — Shane van Gisbergen’s quick rise in the NASCAR Cup Series has been nothing short of cinematic.

He won his very first Cup start on the Chicago Street Course in 2023 out of nowhere and took NASCAR’s top level by storm with five wins in his first full-time season last year.

Maybe not a “Best Picture” nominee at the Academy Awards, but van Gisbergen has a tantalizing “It Follows” plot where he serves as the entity endlessly chasing the main cast of drivers until one day, he finally catches them. That day may come sooner rather than later, and drivers are on notice of how quickly the New Zealander is settling in on the circuit.

RELATED: Sunday’s Vegas lineup | At-track photos: Las Vegas

“Certainly the trend is continuing that he keeps getting better,” Hamlin said Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “I think that’s what [Trackhouse Racing owner] Justin [Marks], the whole Trackhouse group was hoping for. While they know what he can do on the road courses, as he proved it in his first start, can he adapt to these [ovals], and elite, superior drivers find a way to adapt. And he’s one of those.”

There was little surprise that van Gisbergen struggled in his first few races on ovals.

In select Cup Series starts in 2024, the 36-year-old wheelman competed on tracks like Charlotte Motor Speedway, Darlington Raceway and Las Vegas, but mustered a best finish of 26th at Darlington in that stretch.

In his rookie 2025 season, he started slow with 31st, 34th and 32nd-place results at Phoenix, Las Vegas and Homestead, respectively, but broke through in the crown jewel Coca-Cola 600 with a solid 14th-place run.

The road-course dominance was predictable, and van Gisbergen kicked the field, winning five of the six races on such tracks. Then, the playoff stretch of tracks appeared, and it seemed as though van Gisbergen was starting to find his footing on NASCAR’s bread and butter.

He was 14th at Richmond Raceway and then nabbed his first intermediate top 10 at Kansas last September.

Through the first four races of 2026, which included two superspeedways, a road course and the unique 1-mile layout of Phoenix, van Gisbergen is fifth in points with two top 10s pocketed already.

Three-time Cup champion Logano said that van Gisbergen’s strong start is credited more toward the wild card events to begin 2026 rather than pure talent, but still had praise for the driver early in his stock-car career.

“He’s obviously had a pretty solid start,” Logano said. “The speedway races and obviously the road course, you expect him to be good. We’ve had one normal type race at Phoenix, and even with that, still, what was there, 12 cautions or something? It was a lot. I think it’s just we haven’t seen much normalcy yet. I think obviously it’s great he’s up there. I mean, he’s doing a good job. I’m not taking it away from that. I’m just saying we haven’t gotten into a flow yet. Still hard to look at points.”

Van Gisbergen was the cause of two of those cautions in Phoenix, spinning twice off Turn 4.

But the No. 97 Trackhouse Chevrolet driver recovered from the adversity to place 11th and made 118 green flag passes, according to NASCAR’s Loop Data, which was seventh-best among the Cup field last weekend.

“I feel like we’ve been able to execute and get the most out of our situations, which is awesome,” van Gisbergen said of his results-saving efforts. “Like [EchoPark Speedway] was a yo-yo. The leaderboard for us, up and down. Pretty cool to do the same at Phoenix last week, but it would be nice to have a trouble-free day. It wasn’t really our doing last week with the tire and stuff. Hopefully, we can have more smooth sailing.”

The rapid growth for van Gisbergen could’ve stemmed from him experimenting at ovals last year with a playoff ticket intact for most of the regular season. However, that won’t be the case this year as NASCAR reverted back to The Chase postseason format, which is solely a battle for points week-to-week. So the balance of finding his groove versus having clean days has leaned more into doing what he can to score the most points in any given race.

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Sean Gardner | Getty Images

“Last year, I could afford to do that,” van Gisbergen said. “You’re locked in the playoffs, whereas now you need to get as many points as you can every week. So certainly the risk-reward ratio for me has changed a lot, so probably going to drive a little more conservative, but you still got to push it too. It’s a real fine line this year.”

2020 Cup Series champ Chase Elliott said he isn’t surprised to see what van Gisbergen has already accomplished at the Cup level, and that his trajectory comes from his swift adaptability in NASCAR rather than the few similarities between the current Generation 7 Cup car and van Gisbergen’s roots in Australia’s Supercars championship.

“I know that there’s been a lot of [comparisons] to his background and the similarities of this car change that we had to that, but I’m sure it’s still different,” Elliott said. “I’m sure there’s still things that he had to rely on, his natural feel inside the car, to help tune and make it better and make it what he wanted on the road-course side. When I look at how his oval stuff has improved, I’m not surprised. I think he’s really knowledgeable. I think he’s got a great feel for just natural balance behind the wheel, which I think is a really big deal.”

Christopher Bell, who won the pole for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube (4 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), was more blunt on van Gisbergen and explained why the cream of the crop will continue to maintain the upper hand on the rising star.

“Fortunately for his competitors and unfortunately for him, the [weekend] format handicaps him tremendously,” Bell said. “If he would have done this years ago, where we had hours of practice and multiple sets of tires for practice, I think he would have been a lot further along. But the format that we race under today, with one set of tires for a 20-minute practice session, I think has taken him a little bit longer to develop the oval stuff. But he’s clearly getting the hang of it, and it’s not going to be long before he’s a factor on an oval.”

So is an oval win on the cards for van Gisbergen soon? For now, he doesn’t believe so.

“Man, I’m a long way from that,” van Gisbergen admitted. “I need luck to get that and I don’t want to win like that. I’m learning things and feel big improvements every week still, and know what’s going on now rather than just deer in headlights, but I know I’m still probably a little bit away from a win.”

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

Track: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Track length: 1.5 miles
When: 4 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: FS1, HBO Max, FOX One, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,233,037
Race distance: 267 laps | 400.5 miles
Stages: 80 | 165 | 267
Sunday’s starting lineup | Cup Series pit-stall assignments

Las Vegas sets tone for intermediates to come in 2026

LAS VEGAS — Chevrolet took a calculated gamble when it updated its body panels for this year. It’s only fitting that its first opportunity to hit the jackpot in 2026 comes at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Vegas marks the first traditional 1.5-mile oval of the season, offering Ford and Toyota a relatively standard, rinse-and-repeat weekend, as little has changed on their cars at this style of track from 2025. But Chevrolet doesn’t have that same luxury — and its competition recognizes that.

“We haven’t been to a true high-speed, downforce-style track yet,” Toyota’s Christopher Bell said Saturday morning. “So I would think that the Chevrolets, this will be a really good test for them to see where they stack up with their new car. But aside from the rest of us, it’s going to be more of the same.”

Perhaps as expected, Saturday’s sessions produced a mixed bag of results for those sporting the bowtie. In single-lap speed, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was the fastest Chevrolet — third-quickest in practice behind eventual front-row qualifiers Bell and Denny Hamlin — with William Byron (seventh), Kyle Larson (eighth) and Carson Hocevar (ninth) all sporting top-10 laps.

MORE: Schedule, TV info: Las Vegas

Of the 18 total drivers who posted runs of at least 20 consecutive laps, Byron was second-fastest in 20-lap averages only behind Toyota’s Ty Gibbs. But the notebook remains too thin for anyone to make any substantial conclusions.

After the season started with two drafting-style tracks, one road course and a flat 1-mile oval, Kyle Busch said this weekend provides a basis “of where you stack up against the field.”

“Your setup here at Vegas is not the same as Kansas or Texas or Charlotte or any of those (other intermediates),” said Busch, a Las Vegas native and two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion. “You’re pretty different at each one of these race tracks that you go to. So (we’re) trying to pinpoint what allows us to be quicker and what allows us to be further up the pylon to compete. That’s what we’ve got to work on here this weekend to get ourselves in tune with the rest of the year.”

Despite a fast lap in practice, Hocevar was dismayed by his car’s performance, posting just 16 laps in practice Saturday before a 19th-place qualifying effort.

“Car’s terrible,” Hocevar said after qualifying. “Just no grip. I’m sure we’ll fix it, but it wasn’t good.”

He believes a lack of notes contributed to his displeasure, but he said the simulator didn’t go much better in preparation for this weekend’s event. Still, he carries a tinge of optimism into Sunday’s race, knowing the team can make minor adjustments before the green flag.

“Mile-and-a-half (tracks) have been where we’ve been the best, and we’ve been really good here,” Hocevar said. “Felt like we (had) winning speed in the spring, not so much in the fall. There’s a lot of times I show up here, and I think we’re really good on Saturday and we’re not good on Sunday. So hopefully it’s reverse.”

Carson Hocevar climbs into his NASCAR Cup Series car at Las Vegas.
Patrick Vallely | For NASCAR Digital Media

In the details …

Kyle Larson is fresh from his first top-five finish of the young season, a hard-fought third after early handling woes at Phoenix Raceway. There’s reason to suggest another top five — or better — is in store at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where he’s a three-time Cup Series winner. Larson has led laps in nine of the last 10 Vegas races, a level of consistency that places him among the 1.5-mile track’s all-time best:
DriverLaps led at LVMSNumber of LVMS starts
Kyle Larson81919
Kevin Harvick67929
Jimmie Johnson59523
Joey Logano58525
Matt Kenseth52619
Tony Stewart48217
Jeff Gordon45718
Denny Hamlin42128
Brad Keselowski36125
William Byron33716

Speed reads

Race-day essentials:

• Las Vegas hub: Key information, links, results | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: Spotter’s guide to Vegas | View gallery
• Hauler Talk: Horsepower boost, tires a solid Phoenix combo | Listen now
• Tire topics: Familiar Goodyear setup returns at Vegas | Read more
• ‘Full Speed’ on Prime: Relive the Daytona 500 with in-depth access | How to watch
• Power Rankings: Cup Series’ top 20 drivers after Phoenix | This week’s ranks
• NASCAR Classics: Inside the video vault from Las Vegas | Watch now

Contributing: Zack Albert | NASCAR.com

Posted on by Staff Report

Christopher Bell will lead the NASCAR Cup Series field to the green flag on Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

RELATED: Bell takes pole, JGR goes 1-2-3 | Las Vegas photos

Following the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing driver in the starting order will be two of his teammates in Denny Hamlin (No. 11) and Ty Gibbs (No. 54).

Josh Berry, in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford, is the defending race winner. He will start the race in 32nd.

See the full lineup below.

The Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube is at 4 p.m. ET on Sunday (FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

PositionCarDriver
120Christopher Bell
211Denny Hamlin
354Ty Gibbs
423Bubba Wallace
55Kyle Larson
612Ryan Blaney
745Tyler Reddick
860Ryan Preece
924William Byron
1017Chris Buescher
113Austin Dillon
1238Zane Smith
137Daniel Suárez
1443Erik Jones
159Chase Elliott
1697Shane van Gisbergen
171Ross Chastain
1819Chase Briscoe
1977Carson Hocevar
2035Riley Herbst
2122Joey Logano
2248Justin Allgaier
2347Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
248Kyle Busch
2588Connor Zilisch
2642John Hunter Nemechek
2734Todd Gilliland
286Brad Keselowski
2916AJ Allmendinger
3071Michael McDowell
312Austin Cindric
3221Josh Berry
3351Cody Ware
344Noah Gragson
3541Cole Custer
3610Ty Dillon
Posted on by Staff Report

The first of nine traditional 1.5-mile races on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule begins Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (4 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), with the data projecting the usual intermediate aces to hold the winning cards.

Joe Gibbs Racing staked a claim during Saturday’s qualifying session, with Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs wheeling fast Toyotas en route to a 1-2-3 start in Sunday’s race. Despite this, Racing Insights has a Hendrick Motorsports driver — Kyle Larson — collecting the checkered flag. Five Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing drivers (Larson, Bell, Hamlin, Byron, Elliott) are projected to finish inside the top 10, which, if the predictions ring true, will continue a stretch of dominance for both organizations on 1.5-mile tracks.

Here is how the rest of the field stacks up heading into Sunday’s race.

RELATED: Full starting lineup | Las Vegas preview

DRIVERS TO WATCH

RYAN PREECE: The No. 60 RFK Racing Ford looks to continue a strong start to 2026, with the metrics predicting a 10th-place result at Las Vegas. Preece’s 16.3 average finish through the first four races to begin the season is his best start to a campaign since 2021 (12.8), not to mention the 35-year-old Connecticut native has been on a bit of a roll at Las Vegas, finishing inside the top 10 in both races there in 2025, including a third-place result last March. Preece’s eighth-place start is his best beginning position so far in 2026 and his first career top-10 start at Las Vegas.

BUBBA WALLACE: If there is an organization best equipped to overtake the Joe Gibbs-Hendrick Motorsports brigade in Las Vegas, it could be 23XI Racing. Look no further than Wallace and the No. 23 camp; while the team is projected to finish 12th at Las Vegas, there is positive momentum going for them. Wallace’s 8.8 average finish to begin 2026 is his best career start to a season, and while his last six races on 1.5-mile tracks have yielded mixed results (two top fives, four finishes of 22nd or worse), you can’t discount playing the hot hand. Wallace will start fourth, his best career start in Sin City.

AUSTIN DILLON: The No. 3 Richard Childress Racing driver will start just outside the top 10 on Sunday (11th), and while the metrics project a finish outside the top 20 (22nd), it is entirely possible this fortune can be reversed for the better. Las Vegas is the only 1.5-mile track where Dillon has multiple top-five finishes in Cup.

FULL PROJECTED RESULTS FOR 2026 PENNZOIL 400 PRESENTED BY JIFFY LUBE (4 P.M. ET, FS1)

FINISHCAR NUMBERDRIVER
15Kyle Larson
220Christopher Bell
311Denny Hamlin
424William Byron
545Tyler Reddick
622Joey Logano
79Chase Elliott
817Chris Buescher
912Ryan Blaney
1060Ryan Preece
111Ross Chastain
1223Bubba Wallace
1354Ty Gibbs
147Daniel Suárez
1519Chase Briscoe
166Brad Keselowski
178Kyle Busch
1871Michael McDowell
1916AJ Allmendinger
2077Carson Hocevar
2138Zane Smith
223Austin Dillon
2343Erik Jones
2421Josh Berry
2548Justin Allgaier
2688Connor Zilisch
274Noah Gragson
2847Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
2942John Hunter Nemechek
3035Riley Herbst
3197Shane van Gisbergen
322Austin Cindric
3334Todd Gilliland
3441Cole Custer
3510Ty Dillon
3651Cody Ware
Posted on by Reid Spencer

LAS VEGAS — Kyle Busch expects to use Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as a barometer for intermediate tracks later in the 2026 schedule, but the fit won’t be precise.

RELATED: Weekend schedule | At-track photos: Las Vegas

“Yeah, just to kind of get a basis, I guess, of where you stack up against the field,” Busch said of Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube (4 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “Your setup here at Vegas is not the same as Kansas, Texas, Charlotte or any of those.

“You’re pretty different at each one of these race tracks that you go to, so trying to pinpoint what allows us to be quicker and what allows us to be further up the pylon to compete — that’s what we’ve got to work on here this weekend to get ourselves in tune with the rest of the year.”

Busch showed excellent speed at Las Vegas in last year’s spring event, before his race fell apart.

“Last year here, this race was really good for us,” said Busch, whose winless streak at Richard Childress Racing has reached 97 races as he comes to his home track. “I thought we had really good speed. I think we qualified in the top 10 (fourth in fact). We were running fourth. We had a bad pit stop, and then we had a loose wheel, lost a tire, all that sort of stuff.

“So it just kind of derailed after the first time we hit pit road. Can’t have all that happen. Hopefully, we can have some of the same speed that we had here and go from there.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

LAS VEGAS – With a blistering lap at 187.156 mph in Saturday’s time trials at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Christopher Bell claimed the pole position for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube (4 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Bell navigated the 1.5-mile intermediate track in 28.853 seconds to beat Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin (186.188 mph) for the top starting spot by 0.150 seconds.

The Busch Light Pole Award was Bell’s first of the season, his fourth at Las Vegas and the 15th of his Cup Series career.

RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos: Las Vegas

With JGR’s Ty Gibbs qualifying third at 185.803 mph and 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace fourth at 185.771 mph, Toyota swept the top four starting spots in a race for the seventh time in the manufacturer’s history in the Cup Series, with the previous most recent occurrence coming at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last year.

This was the second straight Las Vegas race in which Toyotas have started 1-2-3, with Hamlin, Chase Briscoe and Bell doing the honors in qualifying last fall.

“It was pretty simple, really,” Bell said of his qualifying lap. “It takes a lot of commitment here at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to qualify well. My team got their Ps and Qs right. We had a lot of grip, and I held my foot down, and we won the pole.”

Bell’s car seemed unbothered by the troublesome Turn 1 bumps that upset the efforts of more than a few other competitors.

“It’s a compromise,” Bell explained. “Every time you come to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, it’s a compromise of getting your car to have as much grip as you can have in (Turns) 3 and 4 without the bump hindering you in (Turns) 1 and 2.

“Anytime you make the car drive better across the bumps, you’re giving up performance on the smooth part of the race track, and my team nailed it.”

Reigning series champion Kyle Larson (185.548 mph) qualified fifth in the fastest Chevrolet, with Phoenix winner Ryan Blaney (185.185 mph) claiming the sixth spot on the grid in the top Ford.

Series leader Tyler Reddick, winner of the first three races this season, will start seventh, followed by Ryan Preece, William Byron and Chris Buescher.

Defending race winner Josh Berry qualified 32nd in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford.

Bell fastest in practice

Like qualifying, JGR drivers led the way in practice, with Bell topping the leaderboard at 184.062 mph and Denny Hamlin (183.436 mph) setting the second-quickest lap time.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (183.299 mph), Wallace (183.175 mph) and John Hunter Nemechek (183.069 mph) rounded out the top five.

MORE: Practice results

Noah Gragson, William Byron, Kyle Larson, Carson Hocevar and Tyler Reddick completed the top 10.

Both sessions were completed without issues.

Posted on by Cameron Richardson

LAS VEGAS — Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman will sit out a second consecutive week as the NASCAR Cup Series descends upon Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday for the fifth race of the 2026 season (4 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Days after exiting the No. 48 Chevrolet during the race at Circuit of The Americas, Hendrick Motorsports revealed Bowman was dealing with a vertigo bout and missed the following event at Phoenix Raceway. Hendrick simulation driver Anthony Alfredo filled in for Bowman at the Arizona track, and 2024 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champ Justin Allgaier will pilot the No. 48 around the 1.5-mile Nevada oval this weekend.

RELATED: Las Vegas schedule | At-track photos

During Saturday media availabilities at Las Vegas, both William Byron and Chase Elliott spoke about their teammate and extended well wishes to Bowman as he continues his recovery.

“Obviously, we’re very supportive of him and hope that he can get back here really soon,” Byron said. “As a competitor, I hate to see him go through that. Everyone just wants to be able to show up every week and continue to kind of work on things and improve and not have those hiccups in the road. As a teammate, I just want to see him back at the track, but kind of give him the space to go through what he needs to go through.”

Elliott, the 2020 Cup Series titleholder, knows what it is like being out of the car. Elliott missed the spring race at Las Vegas in 2023 due to a fractured tibia and sat out the following five races amid recovery.

While Elliott said he offers support from afar, he wants to reaffirm that Bowman’s absence is missed at the track.

“You want to let the guy know that he is supported and missed,” Elliott said. “I enjoy working with Alex. I think he knows that without me saying anything, but I do think it is probably nice to reaffirm that to him. Unfortunately, I can’t do anything for him. That’s a tough spot. But yeah, try to lend support where you can. Just let the guy know you miss working with him, and hope he gets it all sorted out.

“You never know what’s going to happen or what tomorrow brings, or what something today can impact tomorrow. I hate he’s going through it. Just hope we can obviously help, first and foremost. Just hope he can get some answers to the questions that he has and get him back here at the track soon.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Four NASCAR Cup Series teams were levied penalties for multiple failures during pre-race inspection Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the sanctioning body announced.

RELATED: Cup Series standings | Las Vegas weekend schedule

NASCAR officials ejected the car chiefs of the Nos. 2, 10, 16 and 24 teams ahead of Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube (4 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The team members exiting Las Vegas are as follows:

  • Eric Bailey, No. 2 Team Penske Ford.
  • Troy Lankford Jr., No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet.
  • Jaron Antley, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet.
  • Jacob Bowman, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Additionally, drivers Austin Cindric (No. 2), Ty Dillon (No. 10), AJ Allmendinger (No. 16) and William Byron (No. 24) will lose pit selection for the 267-lap event in the Nevada desert. Byron is a former springtime winner at the track (2023).